The present invention relates to the display for sale of consumer products and, more particularly, to a new and improved disposable stand alone product display.
It has been found that sales of consumer products can, in many instances, be dependent upon the amount of display and stacking space available for the product. Competition among suppliers for retail shelf space is intense; for example, in grocery stores, the permanent rack or shelf space available to display snack foods and other products is limited. Shelf space for special promotions and new products is virtually unavailable. Innovative suppliers have created their own space for their products with stand alone displays such as aisle racks, bins and the like. In practice, these displays are placed in the stores with the management's consent and are installed, serviced and maintained stocked by route personnel employed by the product supplier. Although conventional permanent stand alone racks and bins have been used, they are not cost effective for many reasons. First, in many instances, the retail store provides space on a temporary basis to a supplier for use with a display. In other instances, the need to constantly present a new look to catch the consumer's eye causes the display to become obsolete. The manufacturing costs of these units prohibits their effective short-term use.
Second, these units are heavy and bulky to transport and time consuming to assemble and to disassemble. They take up valuable space on the route employee truck and consume valuable time in their assembly and disassembly. As a result, conventionally constructed displays of this type have experienced a limited use.
Attempts have been made to produce inexpensive, disposable displays to reduce manufacturing costs. One such display constructed from a plurality of rectangular trays of corrugated arranged in a parallel vertically spaced relationship. Each of the corners of these trays are fixed to a tubular column which rigidly supports the trays from the floor. In some instances, these racks can be five to six feet in height and have a corrugated quadrilateral base interconnecting the four columns at the floor. Printing in the form of advertising is typical on the exposed portions of the trays.
In other prior art designs, the use of angle shaped corrugated columns has been attempted. These prior art racks are somewhat less expensive to manufacture than conventional racks; however, they have been complicated in construction and time consuming to assemble and load.